In China, PDP-TV sales in the first half of 2008 registered a staggering on-year growth of 154.4% to 579k units, according to market research firm GfK China. This is the market where 32-inch PDP-TVs based on LG plasma panels were introduced last year with remarkable success. The firm also reported that LCD remains the dominant flat-screen TV technology in China, with sales rising 39% to 5.28M units.

Ken Werner
Senior Analyst and Editor

GfK China attributed the sharp overall growth of PDP-TVs in China to the popularity of the 32-inch segment, which accounted for 49% of plasma sales in the first half of the year. (Fifty-inch and larger models also contributed, with a growth rate of 190%.)

We are now about to see whether there is also a market for 32-inch plasma TVs in the U.S. Vizio’s VP322 became available through Walmart stores in mid-May. The MSRP through Vizio’s website is $649.99, but the set is now available at Walmart for $514.00 as an "everyday value."

The VP322 has been very well received by reviewers and by buyers, judging from their comments on the Vizio and Walmart websites. The VP322 is what I would call an "almost HD" TV. It has the 720 lines of real HD, but has 1024 columns of pixels instead of the 1280 columns that would give a true 16:9 image without rescaling. That said, images on the VP322 prototype exhibited at CES this past January and on LG panels shown in Yokohama last October were very pleasing and didn’t indicate the slight shortage of columns would be a problem for typical viewers.

Vizio advertises a 30,000:1 contrast ratio. Subjectively, the black levels on other Vizio PDP-TVs with this stated contrast ratio do not appear to be as deep as the best from Samsung and Matsushita, but they’re quite good. Motion blur is all but nonexistent, and colors are pleasing and well-saturated.

Vizio has chosen to put very glossy front filters on its plasma TVs. This produces very sharp-looking images in subdued room lighting at the cost of an annoyingly reflective screen in a brightly lit room. This is a rational design choice, and one that works for me, but buyers should be sure it is consistent with their own viewing patterns.

You’d expect a manufacturer would have to make compromises to reach this price point, but Vizio doesn’t make it obvious. The VP322 incorporates 3 HDMI 1.3 inputs, and HD component input, and an RGB input for your PC.

Vizio has repeatedly told me they believe a PDP-TV has to be priced below an equivalent LCD-TV to be sold to U.S. consumers in quantity. In general, you would be hard pressed to find a 32-inch LCD-TV for just a few dollars over 500, but Walmart has recently rolled back its pricing on Vizio’s VW32L bottom-of-the-line model to $527. Still, at this LCD price level, Vizio and its competitors are not able to include the expensive image processing needed to suppress motion blur and provide even reasonably deep black levels.

At this most economical end of the market, plasma shines. If it also sells, Vizio can expect Chinese competitors — after they satisfy domestic demand.